Even as librarians have spent the past twenty years documenting the rich world of scholarly communication beyond the catalog, repositories and catalogs too often remain completely siloed from each other. Current practices and tools to unite the two focus entirely on matching names, an imprecise method requiring substantial time spent on review.…

When asked to print the full text of an article, many undergraduate college students print the abstract instead of the full text. This study seeks to determine the underlying cause(s) of this confusion. In this quantitative study, participants (n = 40) performed five usability tasks to assess ease of use and usefulness of five commercial library…

In 2011, researchers at Bucknell University and Illinois Wesleyan University compared the search efficacy of Serial Solutions Summon, EBSCO Discovery Service, Google Scholar, and conventional library databases. Using a mixed-methods approach, qualitative and quantitative data were gathered on students' usage of these tools. Regardless of the…

ACCESS PENNSYLVANIA is a statewide database that combines resources of over 500 academic, public, special, and school libraries in Pennsylvania. This article discusses the program's background and stresses the commitment its members must make to serve the state's population through resource sharing. It focuses in particular on the incentive the…

Describes a study of secondary school library media specialists in Maine and Pennsylvania that was conducted to establish a baseline of data relating to the use of CD-ROM databases for reference purposes. Topics addressed include database titles; networking; staffing concerns; budget; funding; attitudes toward CD-ROMs; and training and curriculum…

Policies and procedures are outlined for the Online Database Information Network (ODIN), a cooperative of libraries in south-central Pennsylvania, which was organized to improve library services through technology. The first section covers organization and goals, members, and responsibilities of the administrative council and libraries. Patrons…

Discusses the role of libraries and productivity, one of the three main themes that will be addressed at the 1991 White House Conference on Library and Information Services. Statewide coordinated efforts to serve business and government clientele are emphasized, and statewide databases in Colorado, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania are described.…

The 1997 volume of Rural Libraries includes two issues containing seven articles. Articles are: (1) "Information Access through Electronic Databases for Rural Public Libraries" (Kitti Canepi); (2) "Bookmobiles in the Burbs" (Joyce Voss); (3) "Bookmobile Survey" (Liam Kennedy); (4) "Connections: Internet in Rural…

This curriculum guide was prepared as a tool for teaching students the purpose and function of the ACCESS PENNSYLVANIA database in the total concept of information literacy. The database on compact laser disc contains information about the holdings of hundreds of school, public, academic, and special use libraries. The database can be searched at…

This curriculum guide is intended for any librarian in Pennsylvania committed to teaching online searching and looking for guidelines to integrate the skill into the full academic curriculum. The publication will enable school librarians to assist students in developing the skills that will enable them to search and retrieve information from…

This curriculum guide is intended to meet the needs of librarians in all schools in Pennsylvania, including those lacking access to online technologies. It is recommended that the online curriculum be integrated with the teaching of library media skills in other discipline areas at appropriate elementary and secondary grade levels, and that…

The Visual Image User Study (VIUS), an extensive needs assessment project at Penn State University, describes academic users of pictures and their perceptions. These findings outline the potential market for digital images and list the likely determinates of whether or not a system will be used. They also explain some key user requirements for…

Business faculty members teaching at undergraduate campuses of the Pennsylvania State University were surveyed in order to assess their satisfaction with free Web sources and with subscription databases for their professional research. Although satisfaction with the Web's ease of use was higher than that for databases, overall satisfaction for…